Voters across the UK today (May 5) will head to polling stations to vote for their local council representatives.
4,000 council seats in England are being contested across 146 authorities, while in Scotland and Wales there are a further 1,200 council seats up for grabs across 32 councils in Scotland and 22 in Wales.
Meanwhile, in Ireland, all 90 of the Northern Ireland Assembly seats are being elected.
But not every local council is holding an election, England has over 300 local authorities and many are not taking part in this year’s election.
Here’s everything you need to know about where elections are taking place and why there might not be one in your area.
Where are elections taking place?
Elections are taking place for:
- Every local authority in Scotland and Wales
- All 90 seats on the Northern Ireland Assembly
- 142 borough, district and unitary councils across England
- New unitary councils for North Yorkshire, Somerset and two in Cumbria
- Local mayors in Croydon, Newham, Tower Hamlets, Lewisham, Watford and Hackney
- South Yorkshire’s regional mayor
Bristol will also have a referendum on whether to abolish an elected mayor.
All 32 London Borough Councils will hold elections and some other local councils that are part of this year’s elections in England include Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds.
Why is there no election in my local area?
Follow our live blog for everything you need to know about the local elections.
While all of Scotland’s 32 councils and all of Wales' 22 councils are holding elections, not all of England’s 333 local authorities will be.
This is because local elections in England are often staggered. When local councillors are elected they serve four-year terms and some local councils in England opt to elect all of their councillors at the same time every four years.
However, other councils choose to elect half of their councillors every two years and some only elect a third of their councillors every three years, with no election in the fourth year.
This means that there are usually some local elections held in England every year, which are normally held at the beginning of May.
Full list of where the 2022 local elections are being held
The full list of where all of the local elections are being held is as follows:
English metropolitan boroughs
A third of councillors will be elected, except where otherwise stated.
- Barnsley
- Birmingham (whole council to be elected)
- Bolton
- Bradford
- Bury (whole council to be elected)
- Calderdale
- Coventry
- Dudley
- Gateshead
- Kirklees
- Knowsley
- Leeds
- Liverpool
- Manchester
- Newcastle-upon-Tyne
- North Tyneside
- Oldham
- Rochdale (whole council to be elected)
- Salford
- Sandwell
- Sefton
- Sheffield
- Solihull
- South Tyneside
- St Helens (whole council to be elected)
- Stockport
- Sunderland
- Tameside
- Trafford
- Wakefield
- Walsall
- Wigan
- Wirral
- Wolverhampton
English unitary authorities
A third of councillors are to be elected, except where otherwise stated.
- Blackburn with Darwen
- Cumberland (whole council to be elected)
- Derby
- Halton
- Hartlepool
- Hull
- Milton Keynes
- North East Lincolnshire
- North Yorkshire (whole council to be elected)
- Peterborough
- Plymouth
- Portsmouth
- Reading (whole council to be elected)
- Slough
- Somerset (whole council to be elected)
- Southampton
- Southend
- Swindon
- Thurrock
- Westmorland and Furness (whole council to be elected)
- Wokingham
English district councils
A third of councillors are to be elected, except where otherwise stated.
- Adur (half of councillors to be elected)
- Amber Valley
- Basildon
- Basingstoke and Deane
- Brentwood
- Broxbourne
- Burnley
- Cambridge
- Cannock Chase
- Carlisle
- Castle Point
- Cheltenham (half of councillors to be elected)
- Cherwell
- Chorley
- Colchester
- Craven
- Crawley
- Daventry
- Eastleigh
- Elmbridge
- Epping Forest
- Exeter
- Fareham (half of councillors to be elected)
- Gosport (whole council to be elected)
- Harlow
- Hart
- Hastings (half of councillors to be elected)
- Havant
- Huntingdonshire (whole council to be elected)
- Hyndburn
- Ipswich
- Lincoln
- Maidstone
- Mole Valley
- Newcastle-under-Lyme (whole council to be elected)
- North Hertfordshire
- Norwich
- Nuneaton and Bedworth (whole council to be elected)
- Oxford (half of councillors to be elected)
- Pendle
- Preston
- Redditch
- Reigate and Banstead
- Rochford
- Rossendale
- Rugby
- Runnymede
- Rushmoor
- South Cambridgeshire (whole council to be elected)
- South Lakeland
- St Albans (whole council to be elected)
- Stevenage
- Tamworth
- Tandridge
- Three Rivers
- Tunbridge Wells
- Watford
- Welwyn Hatfield
- West Lancashire
- West Oxfordshire
- Winchester
- Woking
- Worcester
- Worthing
London borough councils
All councillors are to be elected.
- Barking and Dagenham
- Barnet
- Bexley
- Brent
- Bromley
- Camden
- City of London
- Croydon
- Ealing
- Enfield
- Greenwich
- Hackney
- Hammersmith and Fulham
- Haringey
- Harrow
- Havering
- Hillingdon
- Hounslow
- Islington
- Kensington and Chelsea
- Kensington upon Thames
- Lambeth
- Lewisham
- Merton
- Newham
- Redbridge
- Richmond upon Thames
- Southwark
- Sutton
- Tower Hamlets
- Waltham Forest
- Wandsworth
- Westminster
English mayoral elections
- Croydon
- Hackney
- Lewisham
- Newham
- South Yorkshire
- Tower Hamlets
- Watford
Welsh local authorities
- Blaenau Gwent
- Bridgend
- Caerphilly
- Cardiff
- Carmarthenshire
- Ceredigion
- Conwy
- Denbighshire
- Flintshire
- Gwynedd
- Isle of Anglesey
- Merthyr Tydfil
- Monmouthshire
- Neath Port Talbot
- Newport
- Pembrokeshire
- Powys
- Rhondda Cynon Taf
- Swansea
- Vale of Glamorgan
- Torfaen
- Wrexham
Scottish local authorities
- Aberdeen
- Aberdeenshire
- Angus
- Argyll and Bute
- Clackmannanshire
- Dumfries and Galloway
- Dundee
- East Ayrshire
- East Dunbartonshire
- East Lothian
- East Renfrewshire
- Edinburgh
- Falkirk
- Fife
- Glasgow
- Highland
- Inverclyde
- Midlothian
- Moray
- North Ayrshire
- North Lanarkshire
- Orkney Islands
- Perth and Kinross
- Renfrewshire
- Scottish Borders
- Shetland Islands
- South Ayrshire l
- South Lanarkshire
- Stirling
- West Dunbartonshire
- Western Isles
- West Lothian
How do I find out the candidates for my area?
You can find out who the candidates for your local area are by checking your polling card, this will list the names of each of the candidates as well as the party that they are from.
Alternatively, you can also head to the Electoral Commission Website which provides details about the elections including a rundown of all of the candidates as well as information about where to go and how to vote.
